Chapter 5: Robbed

“Mm...” Zax moaned in pain, feeling as if his Master stomped his head with one of his tough hooves.

Slowly opening his eyes. “Darkness? Night time?” His internal clock told him otherwise and his vision was blurry so he could not count on it.

He expected it would take an instant for his eyes to adjust, but even after he could see pretty much nothing. It took another instant for him to spot the metallic surface centimeters from his face and even to his sides and probably beneath his back.

“Where am I?” It was all too confusing.

Wherever he was, it felt like a really small and cold chamber, but why was he there?

The attacks from the Horned Eel and Four Wings Stork left remnants that invaded his body and soul even after escaping to the safe shores of Selivereb. Those remnants were comprised from icy attribute energy and fiery attribute energy and where much more difficult to deal with than a regular mist or soul attack.

Protecting the soul was much more critical than healing the body or even postponing its decomposition, besides; it seemed to be the main target of the remnants. As such, Zax was forced to his Inner Panorama, without being able to afford and ounce of concentration on what happens to his body and its surrounding.

Expelling the last remnant and feeling his body completely healed, he was finally able to wake up and after three instants, recall everything that happened before he got to where he currently is.

“What!” The moment he released his Soul Sense Zax was struck dumb, perceiving every detail around, not knowing if he should laugh or cry.

The small chamber he was in, which roughly met his dimensions, was actually a coffin shaped compartment of a fridge, and that fridge was located inside a freaking morgue!

A sixty something old man and a thirty something woman where in the room the fridge was at, currently performing an autopsy on a young female corpse.

Zax was at loss. The duo of forensic doctor and assistant were only first realm cultivators. The old man was in the Mist Master level and the young woman apparently just broke through the Core Breaker level. They seemed like decent people that did not deserve to be frightened to death by a supposedly dead man.

‘I should knock’. He picked his approach to the matter of how to leave this disturbing place.

Making an effort to move his hand above his head inside the small compartment, Zax’s placid temperament abruptly changed and killing intent erupted in his entire person.

BANG!

He blasted the lid of the compartment with a punch.

“Yaaaahhh!” The female assistant screamed, terrified by the loud sound that interrupted the peacefulness of hers and the old man’s work.

The old man exhibited a more composed reaction, not shouting or jumping like his assistant, though it was quite fortunate that he operated on a dead person, since that cut he mistakenly made, which split the corpse in two, seemed kind of fatal...

“Doctor!” The female assistant shouted and pointed when she tracked the trajectory of the bent lid that was deep embedded in the wall.

Again, the doctor did not react as surprise, but when he saw the same unnerving scene as his assistant, he suddenly felt weak in his knees and his complexion whitened.

A long, muscular, vigorous arm was held out from within the dead’s chamber. At one end of the arm was a clenched, steaming fist. The five fingers opened, grabbed the side of the compartment and pulled.

As the metallic bed rolled out, the being on it was more perceived by their trembling souls than eyes, since its urge to slaughter emanated an unrestrained, stabbing like sensation even the most impervious person could not ignore.

“Shalina!” The old doctor reached to grab his assistant before she fell, as her mind could not hold on to Zax’s imposing manner and she fainted.

“Tsk!” Zax annoyingly viewed the two and seeing that the old doctor was at his limits, he grudgingly restrained some of his killing intent and picked up a white lab coat that was laying down on a chair.

“Tell me”, his voice sounded hoarse yet very much resonating in the old doctor’s sea of consciousness. “Don’t dare to conceal a single thing of what happened to me and my belongings after I drifted to shore!”

“Y- Yo- You are alive!” The old doctor said in shock, but noticing in Zax’s eyes the glint of desire to tear someone apart, he got back to his senses.

“You-”

“Explain from the beginning, hurry!” Zax barked.

“Two weeks and two days ago, you were found on the central shore. The affluent bathers were very exasperated so the city’s police dumpe- brought you here. There was only the upper half of your body and you drifted from the sea, so it was assumed that you are a cultivator who improperly tried to cross the sea and got punished by the two Overlords”. Still holding his assistant, the old doctor did his best not to stutter and was very much motivated to pay attention to monitor his words by Zax’s intimidating gaze.

‘Two Overlords, the damned eel and nagging bird... ‘ Zax made a promise to himself to kill the two in revenge and snatch their Pure Cores the day he will have the strength.

As for the way he was handled when they found him, he did not care. The old doctor had yet reached to the crucial info he wanted to know.

“I was here more than two weeks?” He asked as part of a larger question, but also because he was inwardly astonished by how long it took him to recover.

If two weeks and two days passed than this should be the span of time it took him to protect and treat his soul. His body should have healed sooner, though probably required at least a week, due to the devastating power that remained in it post his escape.

“Yes, please don’t get offended. A colleague of mine, who is a researcher of the soul, came to investigate the state of your soul since I could not detect the slightest sign of life from your body, I personally asked him to make sure that there is nothing that can be done for you”.

The old doctor tried to placate Zax and though he did invite over someone he knew to examine Zax’s soul, it was not out of concern, but for his curiosity toward a specimen that managed to stay half intact under the wrath of the two Overlords.

“Then...” Zax stressed each syllable. “Why have I been kept here?” He got closer and closer to figuring the whole picture, whilst testing the old doctor’s sincerity.

“No, sir!” The old doctor hurried to point out in order to avoid a misunderstanding. “It was my decision to preserve your body ... shortly after you were brought and assumed dead in both body and soul, we tried to find relatives for last arrangements. Regrettably, no one came forward, so I decided to give you a proper burial myself when I’ll be done with my work”. The old doctor wore a gloomy countenance. “It’s all my old brain fault. Recent case of the city’s police required much of my expertise and attention that useless me inadvertently neglected all other responsibilities”.